2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Sunday, April 6-8:00 am
Disc.
Robert Frederic Trager, University of California, Los Angeles
rtrager@ucla.edu
16-21 NEW THREATS
Room Suite 15-250 on the 15th Floor, Sun at 8:00 am
Paper Security Strategies in Cyber-Warfare
An analysis of appropriate deterrence thresholds as the United
States attempts to define and implement an effective strategy in the
face of the increased potential for cyber conflict.
John P. Callaghan, University of Cincinnati
jpc_45@yahoo.com
Rudi D. Kauffman, University of Cincinnati
kauffmrd@email.uc.edu
Paper Space-Based Missile Defenses: Obstacles and Opportunities
While foes of a U.S. space-based ballistic missile defense (BMD)
system claim there are legal, technological & political obstacles to
implementation, there are in fact no absolute obstacles to the U.S.
implementing a space-based BMD system.
Mary F. Sindelar, California State University, San Bernardino
maryfaye@excite.com
Paper New Threats! New Perspectives What the Strategic Documents
of West Say
Depending on the current debate of whether these strategies bring
out new perspectives to understand and explain new threats, this
brief paper tries to compare divergent and convergent points in the
Western (EU’s and U.S.’s) security strategies.
Nursin Guney, Yildiz Technical University
nursin_g@yahoo.com.tr
Visne Korkmaz, Yildiz Technical University
korkmaz_visne@yahoo.com.tr
18-9 NEW VARIABLES IN FOREIGN POLICY DECISION
MAKING
Room Suite 13-250 on the 13th Floor, Sun at 8:00 am
Paper Reflexive Reason in Foreign Policy Construction
A simple proposed model draws from several elements of
constructivist theory to show how states can exercise reflexive
reason in their construction of foreign policy interests and policies.
Adam Joseph Mount, Georgetown University
ajm84@georgetown.edu
Paper Irreducible Uncertainty: Its Origins and Effects on Foreign
Policy
A framework detailing the structural causes of uncertainty is
developed to explain why debates over nuclear proliferation and
climate change are dominated by belief-oriented thinking.
Zachary Zwald, Mershon Center
zjzwald@gmail.com
Paper Ideology and the Origins of Containment
This paper argues that ideology played a minor role in the early
Cold War by demonstrating that containment was initially directed
to halt the expansion of a potential hegemon rather than the
expansion of a socio-economic system of government.
Paul C. Avey, University of Notre Dame
pavey@nd.edu
Paper Surprise and Entrenched Beliefs: The Strategic Optimality of
Biases
This project looks at the relationship between misjudgment, surprise
and policy failure, integrating two different causal models: the
bureaucratic model and the strategic model. Results are evaluated
with quantitative and case analysis.
Scott Helfstein, University of Michigan
shelfste@umich.edu
19-11 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW (Cosponsored
with International and Comparative Law, see
44-5)
Room Salon 2 on the 3rd Floor, Sun at 8:00 am
Chair Yoram Z. Haftel, University of Illinois, Chicago
yhaftel@uic.edu
Paper Ratification of International Human Rights Agreements: (Why)
is the U.S. Exceptional
Why – unlike most advanced democracies – does the US refrain
from ratifying many UN human rights agreements (HRAs) I
conduct cross-national-time-series analysis of ratification of all 39
UN HRAs and case studies of US ratification/non-ratification.
Jana von Stein, University of Michigan
janavs@umich.edu
Paper Human Rights Treaties and International Condemnation of
Norm Violations
We ask whether signing key international treaties, such as the
convention against torture and the covenant on civil and political
rights, reduces or increases the subsequent risk that a human rights
violator will be punished.
Nikolay Marinov, Yale University
nikolay.marinov@yale.edu
Disc. Dina Francesca Haynes, New England School of Law
dhaynes@faculty.nesl.edu
Noha Shawki, Illinois State University
nohashawki@ilstu.edu
21-13 POLITICAL ATTITUDES
Room Suite 13-150 on the 13th Floor, Sun at 8:00 am
Chair Ken Mulligan, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
kmulliga@siu.edu
Paper Political Parties and Attitude Constraint
We study the importance of political context for opinion formation
by experimentally investigating the effects of political brand names
on attitudinal constraint in a multi-party political system.
Michael Bang Petersen, Aarhus Unviersity
michael@ps.au.dk
Rune Slothuus, Aarhus University
slothuus@ps.au.dk
Lise Togeby, Aarhus University
ltogeby@ps.au.dk
Paper The Effects of Policy Metaphors on Political Attitudes
In this paper, I conduct two experiments to explore how elites use
policy metaphors to communicate information to citizens, and what
impact these messages have on their understanding and evaluation
of political issues.
Todd K. Hartman, Stony Brook University
thartman@ic.sunysb.edu
Paper Attitude Clustering on the Iraq War: Local Responses to a
National Issue
After the Iraq War started students in college residence halls
looked increasingly to their proximate neighbors to make sense of
this national issue. This lead to the development of distinct local
normative responses (attitudes) to a national issue.
Jerry Cullum, University of Wyoming
jcullu78@uwyo.edu
Helen C. Harton, University of Northern Iowa
jcullu78@uwyo.edu
Paper Premillennialism and Implicit Attitudes
This paper examines the effect of premillennial priming on subject
attitudes towards the policy positions implicit in the premillennial
narrative.
Paula Nicole Booke, University of Chicago
pbooke@uchicago.edu
Disc. Ken Mulligan, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
kmulliga@siu.edu
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